Speech by Richard Douglas S.C.
Chief Justice, Justice McMurdo, Judge Wolfe, your Honours, Mr Dean Wells MP Association member and representing the Attorney General, past presidents, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
On behalf of the Bar Council of the Bar Association I welcome you to the formal opening of the Association’s new premises.
It was always important that this occasion be one with a small invitation list.
The intimacy of the list reflects the importance of properly recognising the significant contribution that all of you made to the establishment of these premises and the advance they present in affording services to our members.
In modern days the Association harbours significant responsibilities, not just for member service but also in discharge of its statutory roles and its non-partisan role in providing comment and submission on justice issues.
We think we discharge those functions well. We are certainly very member and community focused.
Importantly, as all of you know, what we undertake is voluntary work, a true labour of love.
I want to pay tribute this evening in particular to the former Association presidents. They have done so much to build the reputation, standing and strength of this Association.
I note in particular the presence this evening of three presidents who served early in my time at the Bar, Mr Cedric Hampson QC, Mr Bill Pincus QC and Mr Ian Callinan QC.
I remember well how much we young, dark haired counsel used to look up to you gentlemen as towering and courageous practitioners and leaders of our profession who we would be happy to emulate to any degree.
For posterity, all the former presidents will have their photos erected in the long hall behind me.
I pay tribute also to Mr Jim Murdoch SC, and his predecessor Judge Dorney QC, for chairing the Association’s commercial arm Barristers Services Pty Ltd. They have done so much to bring all this to fruition.
I also thank my friend David Tait SC and the Inns of Court board he chairs, for their cooperation and courtesy as our landlords.
A number of our rooms are named after illustrious former members and presidents.
The Gibbs training room and the Brennan Conference room are two of them, complete with busts of those great jurists.
The conference room to my left is named after our first president Arthur Herman Henry Milford Feez KC.
A photograph of this great advocate, often successful at the expense of the government of the day, appears behind me looking out across the river.
Historically interesting is that Feez, our president for almost a quarter of a century, was the best man at the wedding of Dame Nellie Melba.
The room we are in is named after our illustrious Chief Justice who in a moment I will ask to formally open the premises.
In Jim Thomas QC’s latest tome “An Almost Forgotten World”, he speaks of the Chief Justice’s appointment, commenting:
He proved to be a fine choice and is living proof that seniority should never trump talent.
Ladies and gentlemen, I now ask the Chief Justice to speak, and in doing so to formally open these premises.
Speech by The Honourable Chief Justice Paul de Jersey AC
Mr President, Your Honours, ladies and gentlemen
I am greatly honoured to have been given this most pleasant task this evening.
Dan O’Connor kindly gave me an introductory tour last week. I was most impressed, and I am confident you will have been as well.
The elegant functionality of the space is what one would expect for a Bar of the significance of ours. We have ventured very substantially beyond the expectations of an era of which Glenn Martin recently reminded me, when the sole Bar Administrator, Mrs King sat at her desk in what was little more than an alcove. The association of an 1,100 strong Bar should be housed in premises of this quality, a quality which will inspire professional pride in its membership. May I mention these particular features?
First, the teaching room. Its technology will be the envy of the universities. The sound experts, I am told, are those retained also for the new metropolitan courthouse project.
The former common room was never especially efficient for teaching purposes. This room will certainly overcome that deficiency. Importantly, the new facility will streamline transmission to the regions.
Another new feature is the elegant, purpose-built council room, with its superb table of Queensland timbers by local craftsman, Stuart Bywater.
The important heritage collection — lectern, furnishings, portraits and sculptures — has been refurbished and redisplayed with great effectiveness.
And then there is the overarching feature of the exposure of those within to the entry of natural light from without: while not diminishing the quiet serenity of the space.
The Council and Barristers Services have ensured a very good return for the outlay of which the President spoke at the Bar dinner a fortnight ago.
I congratulate the President Richard Douglas and the Chairman of Barristers Services Jim Murdoch on having brought the initiative to its completion, and commendation is also due of course, as ever, to Dan O’Connor.
Mr President, as your leadership of the Association draws to an end, you will rightly regard this project as one of the highlights of a most successful and effective presidency.
I understand that the Australian Bar Council met here recently. While of course we would eschew any competition in relation to accommodation, it is nevertheless reassuring that the members of that Council were apparently very impressed with what they saw, and I was pleased to receive Dan’s assurance that the Association now enjoys the most elegant and streamlined Bar offices anywhere in the nation.
These Inns of Court approach the silver anniversary of their opening, and the contribution of Barristers Chambers to this project was no doubt greatly appreciated. The establishment of this space for the Association denotes a considerable enhancement in what has always nevertheless presented as an appropriately fine home for a large proportion of the Queensland Bar. That the Association is at last appropriately housed also reflects the significant role it discharges, in administering the Bar and ensuring the continuing professional development of its members.
It is with great pleasure, therefore, that I now declare open this fine new office of the Bar Association of Queensland, with warm congratulations to all who have contributed to the production of such an excellent result.
